{"id":365780,"date":"2026-10-06T12:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/365780\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:18:29","slug":"jewish-kids-fleeing-public-schools-amid-growing-antisemitism-including-hamas-loving-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/365780\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish kids fleeing public schools amid growing antisemitism — including Hamas-loving teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish parents say they\u2019ve been forced to yank their kids out of Big Apple public schools since Hamas\u2019 horrific attack on Israel three years ago, blaming educators \u2014 like the Brooklyn teacher who praised<\/a> the Oct. 7 mastermind \u2014 for fostering hate.<\/p>\n

Thousands of families in New York have opted for the friendlier confines of yeshivas and day schools since the 2023 terror attack on the Jewish state, a review by The Post found.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re shown videos that Israel was starving Palestinian girls,\u201d said Josh Horowitz, who left Williamsburg and moved upstate to have his daughter in a safer setting. \u201cThere was no context. There was no screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were calling Zionists violent. It\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s about what was being taught in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upper East Side mom Natalya Murakhver, who pulled her two children from PS 87 in 2024, said the change in the public school culture since the terror attack has been stark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have progressed very quickly. The language changes, the caliber of the venom. I think we\u2019re entering a new phase,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, I think they were at least trying to pretend it was just about Israel. And now it\u2019s pretty clear to those for whom it wasn\u2019t clear before that anti-Zionism is Jew hate and antisemitism as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A June report by the Teach Coalition<\/a> found that K-12 enrollment in Jewish schools in the state rose nearly 2% \u2014 roughly 3,100 students \u2014 in the 2025-2026 school year alone, largely in New York City and upstate towns like Monsey.<\/p>\n

An exterior view of PS 77 is shown on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The school employs Damien Neva, a teacher who allegedly wrote statements in support of Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

Damien Neva covers his face while leaving his home in the South Slope section of Brooklyn, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Coalition CEO Sydney Altfield said the jump was 4.2% from 2022 to 2025, more than double the 1.8% growth in Jewish school enrollment from 2019 to 2022. <\/p>\n

Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah, a network representing 300 Jewish day schools and yeshivas in the US and Canada, said a recent survey determined that 60% of parents who enrolled kids in their Jewish schools said they wouldn\u2019t have done so if not for the three-year-old Hamas-Israeli war.<\/p>\n

Alina Adams, a New York City school admissions consultant, spoke to The Post about enrollment. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

More than half of them said they had fled public schools, Bernstein said. <\/p>\n

Since then, the number of New York City Jewish families looking to move their kids to a new school has \u201cdoubled, if not tripled,\u201d said Alina Adams, a city school admissions consultant.<\/p>\n

Yahya Sinwar, center, the elected leader of Hamas, appears during a ceremony for fighters killed by Israeli air strikes at Yarmouk football Stadium in Gaza City, Gaza, on Monday, May 24, 2021. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Damien Neva covers his face while leaving his home in the South Slope section of Brooklyn, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Neva, a public-school teacher, is under investigation by city education officials after allegedly posting \u201cLong live Yahya al-Sinwar\u201d in a group chat. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Damien Neva attends the fordPROJECTS and BLACKLOTS Collaboration and Opening Reception in New York, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. Diana\/BFAnyc.com<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s three years in, and if anything, it\u2019s gotten worse,\u201d Adams said. \u201cBefore three years ago, I worked with many, many Jewish families, and no one asked what a school was like for Jewish families. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last three years, people have been asking more and more as they\u2019re looking for new schools,\u201d she added. \u201cEvery single Jewish family I work with, every single one, it might be the first question, it might be the last question, but it will always be a question: What is this school like for Jewish students?\u201d<\/p>\n

Deborah Uri and her son Alessandro Marcucci, whom she pulled out of Townsend Harris High School because of hostility toward Jewish students. Courtesy of Uri family<\/p>\n

The most recent catalyst for parents is Hamas-loving Brooklyn teacher Damien Nevin, a failed fashion photographer who moved to teaching \u2014 and sparked controversy by repeatedly praising the terrorists who attacked Israel in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong live Yahya Al-Sinwar,\u201d Neva said in a 2024 Signal group of anti-Israeli Park Slope Food Coop<\/a> \u2014 a shout-out to the mastermind of the terror attack, according to a lawsuit tied to the coop.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t alone \u2014 last month, George Trim, a social studies teacher at IS 181<\/a> in Bath Beach, got into hot water for allegedly spewing antisemitic 9\/11 conspiracy theories, including claims that World Trade Center owner Larry Silverstein knew the terror attack was coming and did nothing to stop it. <\/p>\n

A disturbing report in July by United Jewish Teachers found that there had been at least 250 antisemitic or anti-Israeli incidents<\/a> inside the city public school system since the 2023 terror attack on Israel.<\/p>\n

Alina Adams, a New York City school admissions consultant, said Jewish families were yanking their kids out of schools or asking what the schools were like for Jewish families. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

In one instance, parent Deborah Uri said she pulled her son out of Townsend Harris High School shortly after the terror attack after he had \u201ca couple of upsetting incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Oct. 7, things changed at the school,\u201d she said. \u201cMy son instantly lost his close friends. They would no longer touch or talk to Jews. Administration just kind of went silent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jewish parents say they\u2019ve been forced to yank their kids out of Big Apple public schools since Hamas\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3862,98,100,99,59,61,57,9,24,63,209,5181,58],"class_list":["post-365780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-antisemitism","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-hamas","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-public-schools","tag-teachers","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}